For some reason, the latter pisses me off a lot. The feeling of thinking you defeated the boss after learning the attack patterns only for you to have to start learning another moveset to defeat the boss annoys me. What about you?
Another bar for a new phase is a nice little surprise for me. And it makes me hate the boss even more and make victory even sweeter
If used sparingly, I quite like it.
Defeating Malenia only for her to become the Goddess of Rot is pretty cool. Or if it is two distinct entities like Radagon and Elden Beast. But here is the thing this only works because these are the only two examples in Elden Ring, if that happened with every second Remembrance Boss it wouldn’t be nearly as impactful.Rennala should be a third example, iirc
Yeah, I didn’t think of Rennala. Her first phase feels more like a preview to the actual fight.
I also forgot about the Scadutree Avatar in the DLC. The fight plays out differently here, with the opportunity to land a critical attack and pre-wound the second phase and the the third phase.
Ya exactly this. When used well it enhances the boss. When overused it becomes annoying and cliched.
I appreciate the way they had Malenia’s second healthbar interact with her health-steal mechanic too. Having the second phase start below full health adds some interesting pressure to not take hits since it’s the only time she can go above where she started
Second bar is always more stylish than one.
I like it when the twist isn’t obvious. Realizing the Guardian Ape was getting back up for the first time, for example, is such a great “oh fuck” moment that it’s worth any frustration of having to learn two very different fights. For something like Sister Friede from DS3, however, where it’s very clear that you’re gonna fight Father Ariandel too and there’s a third phase with just Friede again after, I would have preferred one very big health bar for the entire fight.
I think my bar is really focused on “is the boss supposed to basically die and then they get like a Zenkai boost from DBZ, or am I just gonna fight the same guy the whole time and they’re just getting new moves as their health lowers?”
You know, I hadn’t thought of it this way before but I think you’ve actually nailed what makes me like or dislike a second healthbar there
I totally prefer a new health bar. The “oh fuck” is more prominent like that. I mean on the second, third, twentieth time it doesn’t matter, but I like the surprise the first time around.
I mean, to answer this, the entire context of the whole game matters.
I like same bar. I want to know how close I am. Reminds me of a game where a boss just had to be taken down to half health but I did not know and stopped trying until later I found out I was like a hair away from getting passed him.
Depends on the game, and on the fight.
Taking for example Bloodborne, the way these fights are designed I’d hate if Orphan or Lawrence had a full second phase health bar, just as it is, they are super tough fights but they work, well; at least Orphan does… I wouldn’t mind one on, say Mergos WN which I find lacking. Maybe others could be fun but (Bias alert) the game works really well how it is, I wouldn’t change it.
On the other hand I feel a bunch of Elden Ring bosses would benefit from a full second health bar, both for narrative and mechanical reasons. especially Malekith , Morgott, and Messmer…
Tap for spoiler
(but the fucking sunflower gets 3 healthbars?argghhhh)
I guess that Malekith would pose too much of a roadblock for new players, but again on replays feels too short. Same with the others.
I think lies of P did it mostly right, they are well integrated on the narrative, they are fun, they increase the game difficulty at the right point but not too much, and don’t feel like padding. They compensate the lack of exploration and build variety of the game. So it works here.
Tap for spoiler
my only gripes are Brotherhood pt 2, (long, t tedious endurance fight) and final boss ( phase1 should be balanced better, this one does feels like padding but narratively it’s needed)
Mostly, If they serve the narrative well, I tend to like them. They just need to be fun.
Thanks for coming to my TED Talk.
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![[Discussion] Do you prefer a boss' second phase HP to be integrated into one singular healthbar or do you prefer a second healthbar for the second phase?](https://lemmy.zip/pictrs/image/ac93d278-16b3-4803-af15-f6e590482c4d.webp){kind=link}